The MS Runner

Running While Battling Foot Blisters, Leg Cramps, Black Toe Nails - and MS

Archive for the ‘beer’


Catching Up

Published July 4th, 2008 in Georgetown Idaho Springs Half, brewery, OBX Marathon, marathon, beer | 2 Comments »

I know that I haven’t written anything in awhile, but I do have many excuses. I just won’t share those with you.

Other than house hunting and doing my training runs, nothing much else is new. It seems like my marathon, The OBX is such a long way off, that I haven’t been too serious in my training yet. I’ve been putting in the miles, but I haven’t been able to actually “get into it” if you know what I mean. Does anyone else ever get that way, and what do you do to get yourself out of that funk? I think what I need is to actually do a race, whether it’s a 5K, 10K, or a half and I’m leaning towards doing a half for sure. So it looks like I will do the Georgetown to Idaho Springs half marathon on August 9th. I did it last year with a sore calf, and ended up really hurting it and not being able to run for 2 weeks. It’s a nice little half marathon though, although they don’t serve real beer at the finish. Last year they had some non alcoholic beer to drink. What’s the point of that? However, you can always walk about a block away to a great micro brewery called Tommy Knocker Brewery. Make sure to get the sampler which will give you a taste of all their beers. I like The Pick Axe Ale myself.

Runnin’ of the Green Lucky 7K

Published March 17th, 2008 in Runnin' of the Green, St Patrick's Day, beer, Denver | 1 Comment »

I wonder if they called it Runnin’ of the Green because most people looked a little green since it was the day after most of the St Patrick’s Day celebrations. The day before this race was not a good way to prepare for this run for me. In the morning I ran 12 miles of which 4 miles were at a 7:30 pace. Then Diane and I went downtown and took in the ambiance that was St Patrick’s Day. And although it was 2 days before my birthday, we were celebrating that also.

The race attracted over 3,000 people which is crazy. The thing that gets me is the numb nuts that are up towards the front of the start line, and they have no business being there. There were people (I call them people, not runners) that after a mile were walking! This made for a really slow start for me and also made me frustrated.

The weather was very nice, around 40 degrees, but a little windy. Also downtown Denver has a few streets that are nasty hills! Other than a few dogs and a couple of strollers (don’t get me started on that stuff!), there were no other major incidents to speak of. I ended up doing 32:36 which was not too shabby I must say. That put in in about the top 10% of all the runners that day. 367th out of 3112 runners. The best part however is that they have Killian’s beer at the end. Slainte.

One Step at a Time

Published February 26th, 2008 in Run the Republic, beer, Denver | 2 Comments »

I did the Run the Republic race this past Sunday in downtown Denver at the tallest building in the Rocky Mountain region which consisted of running (or walking) up 53 flights of stairs. I really didn’t know what to expect and I had no game plan at all. I figured that I would just play it by ear and see how it goes. It wasn’t like I wanted to beat any particular time or anything, I just wanted to say that I DID IT! For the most part, I took 2 steps at a time, but not at a very fast pace. I didn’t think I was doing too bad, because only 2 people passed me and they looked like they were about 18 years old, and I have kids older than that. I passed a bunch of people and there were quite a few that were really sucking wind. We had staggered start times and a runner would go every 7 seconds so there wasn’t too bad of a crowd on the steps. As I got near the end, I figured that I would run up the last 3 floors. HA. My lungs were burning, and my legs felt like jello. I was just glad that it was coming to an end. It was nice at the finish line because they had cheerleaders there handing out water and your medals. Or maybe I was hallucinating at that point. It didn’t matter. I finished and conquered the 1,098 steps and lived to tell about it. My time was 11 minutes and 49 seconds and I finished 526th out of 1,877. The average time was 15:39 and I would say that the average age was under 30 years old. All in all, I was pleased with my effort.

The day before this run, I ran 14 miles at an easy pace. My overall was 9:05 per mile. I took it real easy the first 9 miles, and then did 4 miles at a 8:00 per mile pace before finishing the last mile at about a 9:30. It’s funny but I sweated more doing the steps for less than 12 minutes, than I did for the whole 14 mile run. My only complaint about the stair climbing/running, is that there was no beer at the end. Sheesh.

Another Week Bites The Dust

Published February 11th, 2008 in training, beer, Running | 4 Comments »

I enjoy reading some of the other running blogs that I come across because they sometimes have good information, or some type of training tip that is useful.  It is a struggle sometimes to come up with something on my end that is useful, and maybe just slightly entertaining.  If this was just a journal that I listed how many miles I ran today, what type of terrain, and what the weather was like, I wouldn’t want to share that because for the most part, I don’t think anyone really cares.  “OMG, Dave ran 10 miles today and it was only 20 degrees!  I hope he’s okay!”  That being said, I ran 10 miles on Saturday and it was 35 degrees!  And I’m okay.  This was a recovery week and even though I only ran 10 miles, I did 4 miles of it at a 7:45 pace which for me is great.  Along the way, I spotted a bald eagle in a tree and it was totally awesome.  That thing was huge!  One bonus lately is it is staying lighter out later now, so at least when I get home from work and go running, there still is some daylight.  (Who cares Dave?  We can see that it’s staying lighter out.  We are not blind.)  Um, well I did stick to my guns about drinking only light beer despite my son Jason giving me shit about it.  He is somewhat confused in that he thinks that I’m either 260 pounds or 150 pounds.  I did decide though that Amstel Light is the way to go.  It is the best tasting light beer on the market in my opinion.

This week the new gym I joined opens up and I am going to try and work out in the mornings now, and go running after work.  I will see how that goes.  It may be that the gym will be packed because it’s brand new, and I won’t enjoy it if I have to fight over the equipment.  Stay tuned for more breath taking details on this, and many other earth shattering events to come.

Mmmmore beer please

Published February 7th, 2008 in Runners World magazine, Irish Snug, beer | 1 Comment »

Just a follow up to my previous post I wanted to let you know that the Irish Snug Running Club made the big time!  Check out page 50 of the latest Runners World magazine and you’ll see a little side article titled Pub Crawl.  In the article it talks about our club and interviews the owner of our pub, Frank.  The picture is of a pub down in Colorado Springs called Jack Quinn.  I can’t believe that we didn’t have a picture in the magazine because they must have taken 500 pictures!  There’s also a nice article about beer in this edition of the magazine.  Click here to go to that article. 

Mmmmmm beer

Published February 6th, 2008 in beer | 3 Comments »

hooray-for-beerpintopt450.jpgI finally decided that it’s time to cut back my consumption of beer, and also change the type of beer I drink.  It’s not that I drink alot, but I usually do have a couple of beers a day, and it’s usually a high alchohol, lots of calories type beer.  My favorite is just about any type of IPA.  For those of you that know their beer, this is a very hoppy type of beer, and a very distinctive taste. 

 My choices are lite beer, or light beer.  Not many good choices in this category.  My favorite though is Amstel Light, with Sam Adams Light running a close second.  If anybody has any other ideas, I’m all ears.  Keep in mind that not everything is available here in Colorado, so if you are out of state, don’t tell me about some local favorite that’s not available nationwide.  And don’t say Coors Light or Miller Lite!

Drinking Lots of Beer + Running = Bad Race

Published November 11th, 2007 in beer, Colorado, Multiple Sclerosis, Running | 4 Comments »

I was over served. It’s not my fault. Why would someone keep giving me beer when I need to stop because I’m running in the morning? Went to The Irish Snug last night and had a great time. But, I was over served. This morning I ran a 5K in Boulder, The Panicking Poultry and although I didn’t run too bad, I was disappointed. I was shooting for under 24 minutes, but I ended up at 24:30. I started out great, but I think it was too fast. My first mile was 7:30 and it was uphill! I had planned to do 8:00 the first mile knowing that the hill would slow me down a bit, and then gradually speed up as the race went along. But I think that I blew my wad that first mile, and it was all I could do to finish in a respectable time. Oh well. The race benefited a good cause, MS, and it was a beautiful day in Boulder.